It was a reality skirmish on primetime Wednesday, the day before the 2014 NFL 2014 season kicks off. Unlike last year’s finale, there was no announcement of a new season on So You Think You Can Dance (1.3/5), but there was a winner and a hell of a lot of hoofing it. With Debbie Allen, Step Up alumni Jenna Dewan Tatum and Rock Of Ages director Adam Shankman joining Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy as judges, the no-holds-barred two-hour live Season 11 ender saw Enrique Iglesias and Sean Paul performing their new single “Bailando.” Ratingswise, SYTYCD was up 18% among adults 18-49 over its August 27 show in preliminary numbers, and down a slender 7% compared with last year’s finale-low 1.4/4. Still, the dance competition show hit its best demo result in two months.

SYTYCD drew a 1.3 in the key demo in the 8 PM hour facing off directly against CBS’ Big Brother (2.2/8). Down 4% from last week, Big Brother was the night’s top-rated show. Free of reality competition, freshman Extant (1.0/3) was even with last week’s two-hour episode. The Halle Berry sci-fi drama bested NBC’s Taxi Brooklyn (0.9/3) in their mutual 10 PM time slot. But it wasn’t all bad for the NBC show: Taxi was up 29% in the demo from last week.

CBS was tops for the night in 18-49 with a 1.4/5 rating while NBC was first in viewers.

As SYTYCD wrapped its latest season, America’s Got Talent (1.9/6) moved even further toward the end of its Season 9. Last night’s one-hour show kicked off with a visit from fellow networker Adam Levine as The Voice mentor and his band Maroon 5 did the rounds promoting a new album. Then it was down to the biz of results with another six contestants making the cut leading to the September 17 finals. Overall, AGT was steady with its August 27 episode with a 6% rise in 18-49. Head-to-head, AGT easily bested SYTYCD’s 1.4 rating in their mutual 9 PM hour and was the night’s most-watched show with 10.11 million viewers. Like SYTYCD, the live AGT could see adjustments in final numbers later today.

The CW’sPenn & Teller: Fool Us (0.7/2) was up a very strong 40% from its August 27 episode to hit a high for the freshman UK import. Fool Us also had its best viewership with 2.067 million watching, up 30% from its last show.

2 Comments

Iakovos • on Sep 4, 2014 9:11 am

SYTYCD remains an entertaining reality competition series for me, and I hope FOX keeps it on the summer lineup in 2015. FOX programs so weirdly, encumbered by baseball playoffs and such. And I have no clue why it makes the choices it does. Lots of high profile projects that seem to wither on the vine quickly but linger (MINDY, NEW GIRL). And so much is repetitive (Gordon Ramsay?).